The “Hero Journey” and its relevance to our youth
Research undertaken by Campbell, Vogler and others indicate that people relate to the
hero journey form in its varied forms. As Vogler (1992/1999) observes, people find this type
of story attractive. His book, The writer journey: Mythic structure for writers (1992), and
subsequent revised editions outline how the hero journey pattern, as disclosed by Campbell
(1949/1993), has been used in many successful films. Our young people also view films in
which the hero journey has been used and many of those films have been highly successful with the youth audience. Examples are The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, E.T. the Extra-
Terrestrial, The Wizard of Oz and the Star Wars films (Vogler, 1999). More contemporary
examples would be Finding Nemo and Shrek. Our youth have been exposed to the hero
journey through films as well as through other forms of narratives including traditional
myths.
The recent Angus and Robertson survey of Australian children between the ages of
five and seventeen, in which 60,000 children voted for their favourite book, chose
adaptations of the hero journey in all of their top ten choices (Angus & Robertson, 2006).
These included the Harry Potter series as equal first choice, the Narnia chronicles (Lewis),
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Dahl, 1964) and Eragon (Paolini, 2003). Due to this
enculturation of the hero journey in our young people, particularly through our popular film
culture, it is reasonable to assume that they are comfortable with this form of narrative and
that they find it relevant because it continues to attract both young viewers and readers. This
connection with the hero journey is important because by using this concept in the education
of our youth we are providing a greater chance for the learning to be more effective as
students personally relate to the learning process (White, p. 130, p.168).
Modern Australian based research also supports the relevancy of the hero journey to
our youth. In a limited research project undertaken in the Wollongong area of Australia, with
a Grade Six class, the published results indicate that the hero journey does connect with our
youth. Kori Nemme and Phil Fitzsimmons (2004) based their study on Campbell’s views
about how a person’s interaction with a hero journey causes a natural response as they relate
that story to their own lives (pp. 5-7). In their research project they introduced students to the
concept and structure of the hero journey, and immersed students in the novel Rowan of Rin
by Emily Rodda (1993/2003). Importantly, the study undertaken showed how the hero
journey narrative could be used in a co-educational class with a varied range of abilities and culture backgrounds. The class contained seven children out of the class of twenty-eight who
were undertaking a reading-recovery programme and the class had a wide range of language
abilities with students mainly coming from Anglo-Saxon, Lebanese and Portuguese
backgrounds, including some with little use of English at home (Nemme & Fitzsimmons,
p. 9).
Through a shared book experience and set tasks, students were encouraged to apply
their understanding of the text to their own life journey. Without inducement from the
researchers students frequently responded with their personal experiences in relation to the
text (Nemme & Fitzsimmons, 2004, pp. 9-18). The results of the study indicate the suitability
of the hero journey narrative as an educational tool with contemporary students because
students connected with it.
The study found that there was a great deal of resonance with Campbell’s
(1991) notions of natural response when the ‘Hero’s Journey’ was introduced
into the classroom context through the shared book experience. The process of
resonance appeared lively and interactive and involved the interplay between
Campbell’s notions of natural response and the relationships and nature of
learning in the classroom. Students applied an archetypal resonance to the text;
undertook a personal resonance with the ‘Hero’s Journey’ to other narrative and
their own lives; and also developed a social resonance to other students and the
teacher (pp. 9-10).
The second relevance of the hero journey is in the way it relates to our mind,
whether consciously or subconsciously. While a hero journey describes a physical
journey to its reader, which often involves adventure and suspense, it is also an inward
journey that relates to its reader’s psyche. The reason this occurs, as Campbell perceives it, is because all hero journeys are actually about us. He speculated that
people related naturally with the narrative form, particularly the hero journey narrative,
because we are aware that our own lives are a narrative (1993). People also respond to
the archetypes present in hero journeys. The hero’s search connects with modern
readers because it is a reflection of their own search, through their unconscious, for
self-knowledge (Segal, 1999, p. 135):
Freud, Jung, and their followers have demonstrated irrefutably that the logic, the
heroes, and the deeds of myth survive into modern times. In the absence of an
effective general mythology, each of us has his private, unrecognised,
rudimentary, yet secretly potent pantheon of dream. The latest incarnation of
Oedipus, the continued romance of Beauty and the Beast, stand this afternoon on
the corner of Forty-second Street and Fifth Avenue, waiting for the traffic light to
change (Campbell, 1993, p. 4).
The hero journey also connects with people on the conscious level of our emotions. As
Vogler (1999) states:
In any good story the hero grows and changes, making a journey from one way of
being to the next: from despair to hope, weakness to strength, folly to wisdom,
love to hate, and back again. It’s these emotional journeys that hook an audience
and make a story worth watching (p. 13).
If we accept Campbell’s view then all myths are relevant to us and speak to us because they
are about us:
In the end we are all of us in a sense experts on stories, because nothing is closer to us
than to see the world in the form of stories. Not only are our heads full of stories all
the time; we are each of us acting out our own story throughout our lives. Outwardly
male or female, we are each of us, like David Copperfield, cast as the hero of the story of our own life – just as we are equally its heroine. And the aim of our life, as we see
from stories, is that those two should become one, to ‘live happily ever after’ (Booker,
2004, p. 701).
Lastly, myths, including the hero journey, speak to us about our values. While various
critics interpret myths in different ways most recognise them as a valuable instrument in the
reinforcing of cultural values including renowned mythologist, Bronislaw Malinowski and
Jung (Segal, 1999, p. 79). Jung felt that myth had a social function because he saw the
archetypes as models of how man [sic] should behave (Segal, p. 79). Malinowski followed
the socio-functional or structural-functional approach to myths, which studied them “ in
terms of their functional ability to provide social solidarity, to transmit cultural values”
(Doty, p. 46). This corresponds with an earlier statement in this thesis that stories are seen as
an important means through which societal values are taught.
Myths, particularly hero journeys, are also stories (Hourihan, 1997, pp. 1-4) and
provide the same sort of function as stories including the enculturation of values. They do
this through people encountering hero journeys in different media and relating their own
inner struggles with the struggles undertaken by the hero and the choices he (and
occasionally she) makes in overcoming these challenges. These choices, as mentioned
previously, are based on the hero’s personal values. This, in reality, presents a problem, as
outlined previously in reference to Hourihan’s work. She states that the values hero stories
espouse usually involve the upholding the values of the dominant societal group and the
glorification of violence to achieve victory (pp. 1-4). This is because the meanings of the
traditional hero stories include “the inscription of white European dominance, the
marginalisation of women and the privileging of action and extroversion over imagination and feeling “ (p. 10). Vogler (1999) also recognises that the traditional hero journey is more
masculine than feminine (pp. xviii-xix).
The masculine need to go out and overcome obstacles, to achieve, conquer, and
possess, may be replaced in the woman’s journey by the drives to preserve the family
and the species, make a home, grapple with emotions, come to accord, or cultivate
beauty” (p. xix).
Research undertaken by Campbell, Vogler and others indicate that people relate to the
hero journey form in its varied forms. As Vogler (1992/1999) observes, people find this type
of story attractive. His book, The writer journey: Mythic structure for writers (1992), and
subsequent revised editions outline how the hero journey pattern, as disclosed by Campbell
(1949/1993), has been used in many successful films. Our young people also view films in
which the hero journey has been used and many of those films have been highly successful with the youth audience. Examples are The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, E.T. the Extra-
Terrestrial, The Wizard of Oz and the Star Wars films (Vogler, 1999). More contemporary
examples would be Finding Nemo and Shrek. Our youth have been exposed to the hero
journey through films as well as through other forms of narratives including traditional
myths.
The recent Angus and Robertson survey of Australian children between the ages of
five and seventeen, in which 60,000 children voted for their favourite book, chose
adaptations of the hero journey in all of their top ten choices (Angus & Robertson, 2006).
These included the Harry Potter series as equal first choice, the Narnia chronicles (Lewis),
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Dahl, 1964) and Eragon (Paolini, 2003). Due to this
enculturation of the hero journey in our young people, particularly through our popular film
culture, it is reasonable to assume that they are comfortable with this form of narrative and
that they find it relevant because it continues to attract both young viewers and readers. This
connection with the hero journey is important because by using this concept in the education
of our youth we are providing a greater chance for the learning to be more effective as
students personally relate to the learning process (White, p. 130, p.168).
Modern Australian based research also supports the relevancy of the hero journey to
our youth. In a limited research project undertaken in the Wollongong area of Australia, with
a Grade Six class, the published results indicate that the hero journey does connect with our
youth. Kori Nemme and Phil Fitzsimmons (2004) based their study on Campbell’s views
about how a person’s interaction with a hero journey causes a natural response as they relate
that story to their own lives (pp. 5-7). In their research project they introduced students to the
concept and structure of the hero journey, and immersed students in the novel Rowan of Rin
by Emily Rodda (1993/2003). Importantly, the study undertaken showed how the hero
journey narrative could be used in a co-educational class with a varied range of abilities and culture backgrounds. The class contained seven children out of the class of twenty-eight who
were undertaking a reading-recovery programme and the class had a wide range of language
abilities with students mainly coming from Anglo-Saxon, Lebanese and Portuguese
backgrounds, including some with little use of English at home (Nemme & Fitzsimmons,
p. 9).
Through a shared book experience and set tasks, students were encouraged to apply
their understanding of the text to their own life journey. Without inducement from the
researchers students frequently responded with their personal experiences in relation to the
text (Nemme & Fitzsimmons, 2004, pp. 9-18). The results of the study indicate the suitability
of the hero journey narrative as an educational tool with contemporary students because
students connected with it.
The study found that there was a great deal of resonance with Campbell’s
(1991) notions of natural response when the ‘Hero’s Journey’ was introduced
into the classroom context through the shared book experience. The process of
resonance appeared lively and interactive and involved the interplay between
Campbell’s notions of natural response and the relationships and nature of
learning in the classroom. Students applied an archetypal resonance to the text;
undertook a personal resonance with the ‘Hero’s Journey’ to other narrative and
their own lives; and also developed a social resonance to other students and the
teacher (pp. 9-10).
The second relevance of the hero journey is in the way it relates to our mind,
whether consciously or subconsciously. While a hero journey describes a physical
journey to its reader, which often involves adventure and suspense, it is also an inward
journey that relates to its reader’s psyche. The reason this occurs, as Campbell perceives it, is because all hero journeys are actually about us. He speculated that
people related naturally with the narrative form, particularly the hero journey narrative,
because we are aware that our own lives are a narrative (1993). People also respond to
the archetypes present in hero journeys. The hero’s search connects with modern
readers because it is a reflection of their own search, through their unconscious, for
self-knowledge (Segal, 1999, p. 135):
Freud, Jung, and their followers have demonstrated irrefutably that the logic, the
heroes, and the deeds of myth survive into modern times. In the absence of an
effective general mythology, each of us has his private, unrecognised,
rudimentary, yet secretly potent pantheon of dream. The latest incarnation of
Oedipus, the continued romance of Beauty and the Beast, stand this afternoon on
the corner of Forty-second Street and Fifth Avenue, waiting for the traffic light to
change (Campbell, 1993, p. 4).
The hero journey also connects with people on the conscious level of our emotions. As
Vogler (1999) states:
In any good story the hero grows and changes, making a journey from one way of
being to the next: from despair to hope, weakness to strength, folly to wisdom,
love to hate, and back again. It’s these emotional journeys that hook an audience
and make a story worth watching (p. 13).
If we accept Campbell’s view then all myths are relevant to us and speak to us because they
are about us:
In the end we are all of us in a sense experts on stories, because nothing is closer to us
than to see the world in the form of stories. Not only are our heads full of stories all
the time; we are each of us acting out our own story throughout our lives. Outwardly
male or female, we are each of us, like David Copperfield, cast as the hero of the story of our own life – just as we are equally its heroine. And the aim of our life, as we see
from stories, is that those two should become one, to ‘live happily ever after’ (Booker,
2004, p. 701).
Lastly, myths, including the hero journey, speak to us about our values. While various
critics interpret myths in different ways most recognise them as a valuable instrument in the
reinforcing of cultural values including renowned mythologist, Bronislaw Malinowski and
Jung (Segal, 1999, p. 79). Jung felt that myth had a social function because he saw the
archetypes as models of how man [sic] should behave (Segal, p. 79). Malinowski followed
the socio-functional or structural-functional approach to myths, which studied them “ in
terms of their functional ability to provide social solidarity, to transmit cultural values”
(Doty, p. 46). This corresponds with an earlier statement in this thesis that stories are seen as
an important means through which societal values are taught.
Myths, particularly hero journeys, are also stories (Hourihan, 1997, pp. 1-4) and
provide the same sort of function as stories including the enculturation of values. They do
this through people encountering hero journeys in different media and relating their own
inner struggles with the struggles undertaken by the hero and the choices he (and
occasionally she) makes in overcoming these challenges. These choices, as mentioned
previously, are based on the hero’s personal values. This, in reality, presents a problem, as
outlined previously in reference to Hourihan’s work. She states that the values hero stories
espouse usually involve the upholding the values of the dominant societal group and the
glorification of violence to achieve victory (pp. 1-4). This is because the meanings of the
traditional hero stories include “the inscription of white European dominance, the
marginalisation of women and the privileging of action and extroversion over imagination and feeling “ (p. 10). Vogler (1999) also recognises that the traditional hero journey is more
masculine than feminine (pp. xviii-xix).
The masculine need to go out and overcome obstacles, to achieve, conquer, and
possess, may be replaced in the woman’s journey by the drives to preserve the family
and the species, make a home, grapple with emotions, come to accord, or cultivate
beauty” (p. xix).
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